Red Bull may support Alpine application to improve Renault engine

Alpine, as the sole buyer of Renault's engines in Formula 1, sees that there is quite a performance gap between the Renault engine and the others. Alpine wants to apply for an exception to the engine freeze to make the engine a bit more competitive. Red Bull Racing may support the proposal.

Renault took gamble for engine freeze

With the upcoming major changes in engine regulations, F1 engine development has come to a halt. F1 teams are only allowed to tinker with improving reliability. There are still some loopholes in that to improve, but the general story is that not much more speed can be gained in that area. Before that rule took effect in 2022, Renault made the gamble.

With a radically revamped engine, the manufacturer hoped to have the potential to be as fast as rival engine makers. Anything that would not work well could possibly be rectified under the guise of reliability improvements. Alpine has found out that the performance gap with Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull is too big to keep up with, which is why the team wants to apply for an exception to the engine freeze.

Red Bull possibly open to exception for Alpine

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner seems open to the idea. So reports The-Race.com. On the Friday of the Belgian GP weekend, the engine regulations will be discussed. Alpine's proposal is therefore expected to come then. Horner's view is: “It’s a matter of seeing what are the [engine] deficits. I don’t think the FIA have all of the data, and they should present exactly what the differences are. That would be fascinating for everybody to see."

Horner seems particularly curious about where Renault went wrong, but continued, showing his sporting attitude: "If there is a deficit under a homologation, it’s something that we should be sensitive about.Otherwise, you’re locked in for two years [until 2026], so I wouldn’t be averse to a sensible discussion.” Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer welcomed Horner's statement.

Szafnauer adds that an agreement was made at the time, which Horner is now apparently sticking to. Szafnauer: “At the time of the agreement there was also an agreement among the engine manufacturers that if anybody fell outside of 1% then there would be good faith discussions to bring that parity back.” By that agreement, the Alpine team boss means the moment the decision was taken in 2021 to bring the engine freeze forward a year, to 2022.